Tales Of A NonCouple In NYC
by aye davanita
Summary: What if Rory had missed her bus back to Hartford in "Lorelai's Graduation Day"? Literati/Java Junkie.
1. Default Chapter

****

Story: _Tales of a Non-Couple In NYC_

****

Author: LitJJAiken

****

Chapter Title: _Blame It On the Bus_

****

Rating: PG-13 (future dialogue, language, etc.)

****

Summary: What if Rory had missed her bus back to Hartford in "Lorelai's Graduation Day"? Literati/Java Junkie.

****

A/N: Yes, another one. _Wildflowers_ is not finished; _The Intern and Her Baby-Sitter_, however, is. I got the idea for this one the other day, and I had to write it. I hope you like it.

As always, thanks to Joan, Summer, Helen, Loz, Lauren, and Katherine. You all are great supporters and (since you like being called this so much, Joan) muses.

Rory and Jess fought their way through the usual late-day crowd at the bus station. Rory's bus back to Connecticut was leaving in mere minutes.

Jess though of how surprised he was that Rory came to see him. And on top of the event itself, she had skipped school to execute it. He was a little thrilled that he could influence her to do something so out of character.

"So," she said, turning to face him. She fingered her cast nervously. "Thanks for showing me around today. I had fun."

"So did I," he answered sincerely. "Thanks for coming."

Rory shifted her eyes. "You want to know exactly why I came, don't you?"

Jess nodded. "If you don't mind."

She hesitated, then looked him straight in the eye. "Because . . . you didn't say goodbye."

Jess was caught off-guard. He certainly wasn't expecting that.

She looked at him for a moment longer before nodding her head slowly. "Okay then." She held out her good arm, and Jess handed her bookbag to her. She grinned.

"Hand it over."

Jess smiled back and pulled the Go-Gos record from behind his back. "Are you sure you want that in your house?"

"'Vacation' is an absolute classic," Rory answered. She smiled again. "I guess I'll see you around then." Rory turned and began walking toward her bus.

Jess watched her leave, then called after her, "Goodbye." He saw her turn briefly and smile, and in that moment he didn't think her eyes had ever been brighter. But just as quickly, she turned back and disappeared into the throngs of bus-riders.

He didn't leave immediately, though. And this was a fortunate thing, because ninety seconds later she pushed her way back to him. Jess was imagining a last-minute kiss, a declaration of love, then --

"The bus left already!" Rory cried despairingly.

He snapped out of his visions of a Hollywood-esque ending. "What do you mean?"

"I missed the bus!" she said impatiently. "Time that I spent defending my mom's musical taste to you should have been spent boarding a bus to take me to said mother's business school graduation!"

"Well," Jess said calmly, "are there any leaving for Hartford again soon?"

"I don't know," she said. She grabbed his hand and began weaving them through the people. "There's an information booth over there."

Rory and Jess approached the counter of the booth. "Excuse me," Rory said to the blonde reading Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Rory shuddered inwardly at the girl's chosen reading material, then asked, "When's your next bus to Hartford?"

The girl turned to the computer, typed in an impossibly quick command, and told Rory, "The last one left a few minutes ago."

"But . . . but surely there's another one," Rory said helplessly.

"Well, since I just said the last one left already, surely there's not," the girl said, picking up her book and beginning to read again.

Rory turned to Jess, dumbfounded. "Now what?"

________________________________________________________________________

They stood outside the bus station. Rory rummaged through her bookbag, triumphantly pulling out two quarters. "Ah-hah! Now I can call Mom."

She walked to a nearby pay phone and inserted a quarter. With trembling fingers, she dialed the numbers to her mother's cell phone.

"Hello?" Lorelai answered on the first ring.

"Mom," Rory said. She had a feeling this would be their worst fight ever. Worse than the one they had had a few weeks ago after Jess left.

"Rory!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Oh, I hope you're on your way. My mother is here, and she's hired a professional photographer, and --"

"Mom," Rory interrupted. "I'm not going to be there."

Silence.

"What?"

"I'm in New York City, Mom," Rory said. "And I can't get back until tomorrow."

"Why are you in New York?" Lorelai was struggling to keep from shouting. "Why aren't you in school? The school that made me come groveling to my parents for money, and is now the source of the pure embarrassment that I am feeling as a man that I don't even know is asking for a repositioning of the stage in my name?"

"I came to say goodbye to Jess," Rory answered. She closed her eyes and waited.

"Well, sweetie, you got it backwards. You don't visit someone to say goodbye to them," Lorelai said. "You say goodbye to them when you leave!"

"I know," Rory said, close to tears. "But he didn't do that."

"I'm not even going to ask what you mean by that," Lorelai said. "Look, I'm coming to pick you up."

"No!" Rory cried. "You can't skip your graduation."

"Uh, yeah I can. And I am. Where should we meet? I'm sure you know the city fairly well by now."

"Mom, wait. I have an idea." She genuinely didn't want Lorelai to miss graduation, even though she knew it wouldn't be the same without her there. "I'll stay here tonight."

"'I'll stay here tonight,' she says, as though it's no big deal," Lorelai said sarcastically. "And just where do you plan on staying?"

Rory looked at Jess, who had moved closer to her. "I'll stay with Jess." She regretted it as soon as it came out.

Jess' eyes widened.

"You have got to be on something. That's the only way you could be saying these things," Lorelai said.

"Mom, he's not an axe murderer," Rory pointed out.

"Do you really want to be getting sarcastic at this point in time?"

Rory sighed. "Mom. Do you have a better idea other than skipping out on your graduation to come get me? Besides . . . I think we probably need time to cool off before we ride back in a small compartment together."

"_You _need time?" Lorelai screeched. "What do youneed --" She stopped. "All right. Fine. Point taken."

"All right. Now, look, I'll just stay with Jess for the night."

"I swear to God, if he does anything to you --"

"And then," Rory went on loudly, drowning the second half of her mother's sentence out, "I'll call you in the morning to agree on a place where I can take a cab to and you can pick me up."

"All right," Lorelai said, a note of defeat in her voice. "Um . . . just call me in the morning then, I guess. Right. Just like you said a minute ago."

"I will," Rory said softly. "Goodbye."

"Bye." Lorelai hung up.

Rory replaced the pay phone and looked at Jess. "So, it's okay if I stay with you, right?"

"It's more than okay."

Rory nodded. "Okay, then."

"But why don't we go do some other stuff first?" he suggested. "My place is boring. I could show you around a little more."

Rory was hesitant. Was she supposed to be enjoying herself at this time? She felt as though she should be paying penance of some sort.

"You don't have to feel guilty, you know," Jess said. "You screwed up. Perfect Rory Gilmore made a mistake, and the world keeps on turning."

In spite of his mocking tone, Rory was amazed at the way he had seemingly read her mind. She couldn't remember the last time Dean had done that. Had he ever done it?

"Come on. There's this great bookstore I want to show you," Jess persisted.

He knew just how to get to her. Rory smiled. "Okay. Let's go to the bookstore."

Jess set off onto the New York street, Rory following closely behind. She had a good feeling -- despite the fact that her mother was upset with her and the growing feeling of betraying Dean, she was glad to be able to stay with Jess for a little while longer.


	2. The Meaning of Clueless

****

Story: _Tales of a Non-Couple In NYC_

****

Author: LitJJAiken

****

Chapter Title: _The Meaning of _Clueless

****

Rating: PG-13

****

Summary: What if Rory had missed her bus back to Hartford in "Lorelai's Graduation Day"? Literati.

****

Disclaimer: You know how useless these things are? I forgot one of these in my first chapter. No lawsuit yet. But anyway . . . I don't own "Gilmore Girls", I don't own _Clueless_, blah blah blah.

****

A/N: You may have noticed the absence of "Java Junkie" in the summary. That's because I'm not sure I'm going to write it. I don't really know how to write it very well, so . . . we'll see.

As always -- Loz, Katherine, Helen, Joan, Lauren, and Summer, you guys are the best.

"But theology is interesting, even if you don't subscribe to a particular religion," Rory argued. "It gives you a new perspective on life. It shows you the origins of the earth through other people's eyes."

"And it tries to change your life," Jess answered. He stooped down to the bottom level of the shelf in the bookstore. "Fore instance. 'Living a Christian Life.' See? There's already entire books on how to live your life based on the teachings of an uncertain entity."

"Maybe some people just have faith," Rory pointed out.

He shrugged. "Seeing is believing to me. I guess some people don't feel that way."

"I guess not," she echoed.

He stood up. "So. You ready to leave?"

"I guess so," she said. "This place is great. I wish we had stores like this in Stars Hollow. But I'm sort of stuck with Uncle Ralph's Reads."

He laughed. "Yeah, I'm lucky to live in a place where _Lolita_ isn't banned."

"They lifted that ban when I was thirteen," Rory said. "I lobbied for it."

Jess' eyes widened. "I was just kidding."

"Unfortunately, I wasn't."

"Wow. Taylor's more psychotic than even I imagined. I suddenly have new respect for Luke."

"Well, how do you know he's the one who banned it?"

"Because he's the leader and founder of every small-town, freedom-stealing organization in that hellhole."

Rory and Jess began walking to the door.

"Stars Hollow's not a hellhole. It's a beautiful place. I mean, it has charm and funny, nice people and it's like one big family --"

"Rory, I don't have a whole lot of experience with the 'one big family' thing, but I don't think automatically placing blame on something not their fault is how a family interacts." He opened the door for her, still carrying her bookbag.

She walked out, now feeling a little bit of tension between them. She unconsciously ran her fingers over her cast. "Well," she said playfully. "To be fair, you did corrupt the town princess."

"Who needed a little corrupting, I might add," he said. "And really, I didn't do a whole lot."

She paused, both in her speech and her step. "You made me come here."

He looked at her. "That's right. I did."

After nearly being trampled into the ground, they continued walking.

"So," he said. "You want to get coffee?"

Rory's eyes lit up. "I love you!" she squealed. Then she realized what she had said, and who she had said it to. She settled down. "I mean --"

"Yeah, I know," he interrupted. "Come on, there's a pretty good coffee shop down the street here. Their coffee's better than Luke's."

"Okay, number one, you drink coffee? And two, impossible."

"Yes. And it is."

As they continued, Rory wondered why she was overanalyzing the "I love you" so much. It was an exclamatory remark she made to everyone, especially people offering to buy her coffee after a long day. And that's all Jess was, a friend offering to caffeinate her. A younger Luke, maybe. She suddenly had visions of Jess with a receding hairline and a backwards baseball cap. She giggled.

"What?" Jess asked.

"Nothing," she answered, struggling to control her laughing.

"All right then."

________________________________________________________________________

Rory and Jess sat at the corner table of the coffee shop. Rory sipped her coffee. Wow."

"Okay, I don't want to be a traitor, so I'll just say it's almost equal to Luke's," she commented.

"Told you it was good."

"I shall never doubt you again."

"Be sure that you don't." After a pause, Jess asked, "So how's Dean?"

"Dean's great," Rory answered. "So have you read the latest book of Gore Vidal's essays?"  


"Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Steer us away from having an actual conversation. I'm not going to rail on him, Rory. I just asked a simple question."

"So, you don't hate him?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that. When I'm near him I feel the definite urge to throw a few lemons at his forehead. I've only held back because I didn't want to deal with Taylor's fit if I stole his lemons and, to top it off, I had used them for violence."

"Dean's my boyfriend."

"Believe me, I know."

"And," she said, "I understand that you don't like him."

"So let's review," Jess said. "You like Dean. I don't. You make out with him. I don't. Does this have a point?"

"Just that we can't talk about my personal life."

"So Dean is the main focus of your personal life? Gosh, Rory, I don't think that's healthy."

"There's another simple reason. You're impossible."

Jess chuckled. "Thank you, Mom."

Rory sighed. "You really are. Like, if I even mention Dean around you, you're all 'How's bagboy,' and I'm all, "Don't call him bagboy.' And you're all --"

"And I'm all, stop letting your mother force you to watch _Clueless_ every two weeks. We're on the East Coast, Rory. That movie doesn't apply here."

"The message is universal."

"And what message is that? Never forget to accessorize? Never miss an issue of _Vogue_?"

"No, the message is that you can't help who you love."

"Even if it's your ex-stepbrother. I thought incest had pretty much died out in America by now."

"They weren't blood-related, at least. And hey, if Paul Rudd was my ex-stepbrother . . ."

"Please don't finish that sentence."

"I won't," Rory agreed.

"See? Here we are again. It's constant banter of no real meaning. We're interpreting a teen movie from seven years ago. How are you, Rory? You. Not Scarlett O'Hara, not Esther Greenwood, not Connie Corleone. Tell me about you."

"Well," she said. "School's good. Um . . . trigonometry sucks. But English is good. And my mom's good. Still, you know, pining away for Luke secretly while he pines for her visibly."

"Oh, so you noticed that too," Jess said with his patented half-grin. "I swear, sometimes I thought I'd go upstairs and find the two of them copulating."

"Oh, please," Rory said. "Oh, you evil person." She shut her eyes as if to try to block the image out of her line of sight.

"Hey, Luke could become your new daddy someday."

"And we'd be stepcousins," Rory added.

"And thus destroying any hope of a _Clueless_ ending," Jess finished.

Rory smiled. "Yeah."

They sat, just watching people walk by and, unbeknownst to their own heads, enjoying the nearness of each other.

"Well," Jess said. "I'm done with my coffee. What about you?"

"Finished as well." She glanced at her watch. Wow. It's seven o' clock."

"We spent a long time in the bookstore," he reasoned. "So what do you want to do?"

Rory thought, _I want to_ -- She stopped herself. Dean! Dean! Remember Dean? Her boyfriend. The sweetest guy in the world, the one who had built her a car. And they guy she was having these traitorous thoughts about was the one who had wrecked it.

"Rory?"

She realized she had gone silent of all the reasons she loved Dean and why she should hate Jess. "Mm-hmm?"

"We could go back to Washington Square for a while," he suggested. "We could read. I'm sure you have a book in your backpack."

"Three, actually."

"Of course. An novel, short stories, and essays?"

"No short stories today. Instead I've got a collection of e.e. cummings.

"Ahh. E.e. cummings. Not my favorite." He picked up her backpack and slug it over his shoulder.

Rory stood and followed him. "Why? He seems to be right up your alley."

"Well . . ." 


End file.
